


Never Let Go

by dream_girl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen, Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2018-12-11
Packaged: 2019-09-16 04:49:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16947312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dream_girl/pseuds/dream_girl
Summary: Sirius Black is stuck in Grimwauld Place, unable to help the Order, when someone from his past arrives with a surprise.





	Never Let Go

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little one shot I spit out. Enjoy!

Sirius vaguely heard the kitchen door closing behind him, but he was too embroiled in discussing the Order’s next move to look up. “We need to move now, and quickly,” he said, “otherwise we’ll miss the chance!” Bill and Arthur Weasley both nodded in agreement. 

 

“I’m up for it,” Bill offered. “What about you, Tonks?” he asked the woman with the bubblegum pink hair next to him. 

 

“Sure!” she agreed. Within minutes a mission was organized and planned. Dumbledore nodded his approval and, looking over Sirius’ head said to the new arrivals, “Did you get it?” 

 

“Yeah, we got it,” said a woman’s quiet, Irish-accented voice. 

 

Sirius froze. 

 

Dumbledore stood, hand outstretched. Several steps drew the person closer, but not close enough for Sirius to see. “Excellent, excellent,” Dumbledore said, taking an envelope from a small hand with red painted nails. 

 

Sirius stood up and turned slowly around, stomach tight. He knew that voice. He had loved that voice. Missed it. Dreamed it. Cried for it. 

 

A small woman stood several feet away from him, her deep brown hair up in braids around her head like she used to wear it during quidditch games. Or when, later, she was fighting. She wore jeans and a worn leather jacket that looked almost as old as she was--which was not really that old--an old concert t-shirt, and a pair of black high-heeled boots. Her hands were loosely clasped in front of her, and a smear of red lipstick accentuated her mouth. She was biting her lower lip slightly, and her bright blue eyes looked up at him through dark lashes. She was nervous, almost afraid to meet his grey eyes.

 

“Cait,” he breathed. He stared at her, not quite believing that she was standing in front of him. He’d hallucinated her so many times in Azkaban. He was aware of the men with her, one on each side, but not enough to acknowledge either of them just yet.

 

“Well, I think we’re done here.” Dumbledore’s voice penetrated his ears, and he was aware of the people filing out of the room.

 

One of the men leaned forward, his hand on her elbow. “Alright?” he asked her.

 

She nodded once, never taking her eyes off Sirius. They faded out too, leaving the two of them alone.

 

* * *

 

They had met when she was 16, at James and Lily’s wedding. Her parents were in the first Order. She had sparkled that night, leaving him unable to tear his eyes away no matter where in the room she was. He’d asked her father first, if he could dance with her. The older man smiled knowingly and gave his blessing. They didn't part for the rest of the night, and Sirius couldn’t stop thinking about her the next day. Or the next.

 

She was still at Hogwarts. They wrote every day, or almost, when she went back. Technically they’d known each other while he was there, she was a Gryffindor too. James knew her from quidditch, and Lily knew her well, but Sirius hadn’t paid much attention because she was so young. 

 

Her parents were both aurors. He was at her house the following summer, they’d gone for a walk. His patronus flew into the meadow they’d found, warning of the death eaters. Sirius apparated them back and they’d crept in the house. They could hear the fight on the floor above, the shouted curse, her father’s cry of pain. She’d raced into the fray before he could stop her, but it was too late. Her father’s broken body lay lifeless on the floor. He’d held her while she raged and cried, held her back when she tried to give chase. She joined the Order after she finished school.

 

She moved into his flat, too. They were inseparable. She touched the deepest parts of his soul, loved him in a way that he felt deep inside his being, made him whole. 

 

She was 19 when he was sent to prison. The last time he’d seen her she was ashen faced and terrified as he was hauled out of the ministry. Hysterics were never her thing, but he’d never forgotten the look on her face, the quiet hysteria in her eyes. He hadn’t heard from her since.

 

* * *

 

 

“Cait,” he said again, a whisper this time. He reached out and caressed her cheek gently. She leaned into it, closing her eyes. The tear slid down her cheek into his hand. Her hand reached up to cover his, pressing it into her cheek.

 

“Sirius,” she whispered, another tear falling from her closed eyes.

 

His hand slid around her cheek to the back of her neck, threading his fingers through her hair, gently pulling it out of the braids until it flowed free around her shoulders. He drew her close, breathing her in, brushing his lips softly over hers. Her hands drew up over his shoulders and he pulled her against him, kissing her fully, losing himself in the soft, familiar fullness of her lips. She moaned softly. 

 

They stood in the kitchen, lost in each other. The muffled shout of “Oi! Leave them be!” and the multiple pairs of feet running down the stairs barely penetrated Sirius’s consciousness when the door burst open and two people came skidding to a halt. 

 

“Mum?” The voice was young, uncertain.

 

Sirius drew back reluctantly, taking in the new arrivals. Two kids, a boy and a girl around the same age as Harry, stood in the doorway. He had brown hair the same color as Cait’s, the girl’s was black. Both had grey eyes. They looked strangely familiar.

 

“You...have children?” 

 

She let exhaled deeply, and he realized that she was trembling slightly. “ _ We _ have children, Sirius.” It was hardly more than a whisper.

 

Sirius stared at her. He looked hard at the two kids, moving around her to stand in front of them. The girl stared curiously back at him. It was like looking at a photograph of his younger self. He turned back to Cait, bewildered. “Why…?” He couldn’t finish the question. Why hadn’t she told him? 

 

She didn’t need him to finish. “I tried, Sirius.” She closed her eyes, massaging them with her hands. “Well, since you two are trying to kill the poor man dead,” she said tartly, recovering herself, “you might as well stay. Can we sit?” she asked.

 

“Of course.” He walked to the sideboard while they sat, watching them out of the corner of his eye. The two kids--younger than Harry, really--looked around curiously. Sirius pulled a bottle of firewhiskey and two glasses out and set them on the table, before seating himself and pouring the adults a drink. 

 

Cait stared into her glass for a moment. “Do you remember all the fights we had, before…” It was her turn to falter. Before James and Lily died, but he didn’t need her to finish that sentence either. He nodded. “I wasn’t fooling around on you, Sirius. I was pregnant.”

 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he interrupted. They had fought because she never wanted to do anything and was always claiming not to feel good. He had convinced himself that it was because she was fooling around, even though deep down he knew she would never, that she loved him. The war did things like that.

 

“I didn’t know. Not until after you got...got arrested,” she finished miserably. Tears were welling up in her eyes again, but she took a deep breath and carried on. “They were born about six months after. I almost lost them more than once. I wrote to you to tell you, wrote you every day, until my aunt Kate figured out they weren’t sending my owls through.” Her face darkened. “It was like the world was against us. You were in Azkaban, James and Lily were gone, I knew what happened and who had done it but no one would listen. Dumbledore had given evidence that you were the secret keeper--”

 

“But you knew I wasn’t!” 

 

“I  _ know _ . I told everyone the truth and no one wanted to hear it. Pop tried, had a terrible row with Dumbledore. They hadn’t spoken until recently. It’s amazing any Callaghan has been at Hogwarts since.” She trailed off, staring into her glass again.

 

“And then you escaped. I was desperate to know you were alright, but the Ministry showed up immediately and the house was surrounded by Dementors. I couldn’t blink without some bloody auror making a report.”

 

“What took you so long to come here?” It was August already. Why hadn’t she come to Remus’s or been to any Order meetings? Both kids barked derisive laughs. His eyebrows raised in surprise.  It was the first sound either of them had made since they came in, and he was startled by how much they sounded like him.

 

“Dumbledore.” She practically spit out his name. The confusion must have been evident on his face. “Oh, he hasn’t bothered to tell you?” she asked, voice dripping with sarcasm. 

 

“Tell me what?”

 

“ _ He wouldn’t tell me where you were _ . He demanded that Pop commit the family to the Order, and held your whereabouts hostage until he did. Not that we didn’t look. I tried to find you at Hogwarts, and I would guess so did these two.” She nodded towards the kids, who had the sense to look slightly ashamed. “I couldn’t get there much though, because I was being watched. Then you vanished. Remus told me you were back last fall. I went to see Dumbledore, who I hadn’t spoken to since you went to Azkaban. That was the first time he demanded our commitment to the Order. Pop wasn’t having the family blackmailed. Not that he didn’t support the Order and want to be involved, but holding you over us...well, it didn’t go over well. It wasn’t until Remus told us that you were here, that Dumbledore had made you promise to stay here, that I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t let you be  _ here  _ alone.”

 

He reached across the table and took her hand. Merlin, it was a lot. Anger, shock, confusion, anguish, relief...they were all coursing through him. He wasn’t sure there was an emotion he wasn’t feeling. 

 

“I love you,” she said. “I never stopped.”

 

The tears welled up in his eyes. “I dreamed about you, saw you when I was awake...I’m sorry,” he whispered. “For all of it.”

 

Her fingers tightened around his. “I know.” They were all silent for a few minutes. Another set of footsteps came down the stairs. 

 

“Is everything alright?” Remus had come to check on them. “We tried to keep these two upstairs, but nothing short of a body bind curse was going to keep them away.”

 

The three of them looked at Sirius. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Everything is fine.” His eyes roved over their faces. “What are your names?” he said to the kids. “What are my children’s names?”

 

“Jacob,” answered the boy, a soft smile just like his mother’s lighting up his face. 

 

“Seraphina,” said the girl, the mirror image of her father, at the same time.

 

Sirius smiled. “Those are good names. What house are you in?” He didn’t know where to start or what to ask. Remus had slipped back upstairs, he was better with these things. 

 

“Slytherin,” Seraphina answered. Jacob nodded solemnly. Sirius looked back and forth between the two of them. There was a tell-tale glint of mischief in the girl’s eye, and he arched an eyebrow at her suspiciously. 

 

They burst into giggles simultaneously. “We’re in Gryffindor!” they said together, proudly.

 

Sirius got up, pulled both children up and beckoned Cait around the table. He took each child’s face in his hands, first Seraphina, then Jacob, looking at them carefully as if trying to memorize every detail. He gathered them all in his arms, tears flowing freely. “You’ll stay? Please?”

 

“Is there room? It seems you’ve got quite a houseful,” Cait asked.

 

“I’ll make room. I’m never letting any of you go, ever again.”

 

“Well, I guess it’s up to these two,” she said, nodding at Jacob and Seraphina. 

 

“We’re staying!” 

 

Sirius squeezed them all tightly, feeling whole once more.


End file.
